Without a doubt, the best part of Assassin’s Creed III was the naval battles. It’s where Ubisoft Montreal flexed its technical muscles and introduced a fresh element to the series. The rest of the game was good, but it’s those… Continue Reading →

Without a doubt, the best part of Assassin’s Creed IIIwas the naval battles. It’s where Ubisoft Montreal flexed its technical muscles and introduced a fresh element to the series. The rest of the game was good, but it’s those moments when you could almost feel the sea on your skin that were great. The only problem was that there wasn’t enough of that. In fact, the naval battles felt too divorced from the rest of the campaign.

That’s why I’m giddy at the prospect of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. The project takes the most enjoyable feature of the previous entry and builds a whole game around it. It begins first and foremost with a new protagonist named Edward Kenway and the campaign is a prequel of sorts beginning at the dawn of the 18th century when Spain, France and England were fighting over the New World.

As the leaked trailer implies, Black Flag occurs during the golden age of piracy and the new Kenway, the father of Haytham, is indeed a bandit of the high seas. The folks at Ubisoft Montreal are calling it the “first life-size pirate game ever made.” What that means exactly is this: It takes place in the Caribbean and players will helm a ship called the Jackdaw. They’ll meet historical characters such as Blackbeard, Anne Bonny, Calico Jack and Charles Vane. Players will maneuver all over the West Indies, anchor their ship and explore cities, jungles and even underwater wrecks.

Meet the new hero, Edward Kenway, as he travels across the Caribbean.

THE NEW HERO: The scope of Black Flag seems as ambitious as Assassin’s Creed III. But this time around, Edward Kenway seems more charistmatic a a hero than Connor. He’s a poor English lad lured by the promise of treasure and fame in the New World. Creative director Jean Guesdon described him like a Han Solo-ish scoundrel: brash, selfish, reckless and ingenious.

That last part comes across in an inventive moment that Ubisoft showed — the hijacking of a ship. It’s one of the more impressive breakthrough of Black Flag. Players will have to maneuver the Jackdaw and depending on the angle and approach of each attack they’ll have to board a ship different ways. Sometimes it will be from mast to mast. Other times they’ll lash hooks to the other boat and Edward can climb the rope. Players can even unload gunfire to distract foes while Edward sneaks to the back. Add in undulating waves and weather and each assault on a rival ship sounds as though it’ll be an adventure in and of itself.

Naval warfare will be a big part of the game as 40 percent of the content takes place at sea.

THREE MAJOR CITIES: Along with the fighting in the water, players will have the opportunity to land and explore varied locales. Guesdon and producer Martin Schelling said there are three major ports of call: Havana with its Spanish and European style; Kingston, a British city that’s dangerous and dark; and finally, Nassau, which is the pirates’ haven. In between, players will run into fishing villages, Mayan temples, jungles and forts.

The two stressed: “It’s not a land and sea game. It’s the Caribbean. We need to have this and need to make it as fluid as possible.” It sounds as though they’re pushing Black Flag to seamlessly transport players from sea to solid ground without the aid of a loading screen. Players will be able to see a beach and go there. They said the content of the game will be about 60 percent on land and 40 percent on water with 50 unique location overall.

As for the structure, Black Flag is going to be a hugely open world but players will have to level up the Jackdaw to unlock more of it. That requires them to go adventuring and attacking merchant vessels so they can earn money. In turn, those funds will be used to upgrade the Jackdaw so it can be powerful enough to blast through man-o-wars and other ships blockading areas of the map.

Harpooning will be one of many activities available to players.

YES, YOU CAN KILL WHALES AND SHARKS: Some of the tasks available to Edward include harpooning whales. (Don’t tell PETA or Hayden Panettiere.) They can look for gold in shipwrecks via a diving bell that lets them go underwater and kill sharks when the situation warrants it. There are also missions on land, which gives players a chance to try out some of Edward’s new moves, which include the ability to unload four pistols during a combo.

From the sound of it, the crew will have a vital role in the storytelling and how well a ship performs in battle. There will be your fare share of faceless crewmen, but there are special crew members who must be discovered and they offer up quests. The setup sounds a lot like Commander Shepard aboard the Normandy in Mass Effect except this time battling ship to ship has more of an impact.

Havana, Kingston and Nassau are the three main cities in the game. Edward can also use four guns in a combo.

SO HOW DO YOU GET IN THE ANIMUS ANYWAY?: Players can use a spyglass to assess vessel they see on the horizon and determine if it’s worth attacking or letting it go by. Fog affects combat, limiting visibility and perhaps gun accuracy. The number of crewmembers you command also factors into a successful raid. The Ubisoft crew said there are several ship archetypes each with their own AI. One even rams players kamikaze-style.

As for the bigger story, Ubisoft Montreal and company had to come up with another way of getting players to relive memories in the animus. With that in mind, there’s a new present-day storyline where a player takes the role of an Abstergo Entertainment researcher and the scientist/player has stumbled upon a fascinating figure named Edward Kenway. The scientist/player goes into the animus to do some digging. By the way, if you want to do real research on your own, Ubisoft recommended I read The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodard. The author was the consultant in the game and it offers some background in this era of Assassin’s Creed.

There are plenty of locales to explore including jungles and Mayan ruins.

With that said, the one thing that worries me about the game is the economy. That’s been the Achilles’ heel of Ubisoft Montreal. They can never seem to get that right. Sometimes it feels useless after a certain point in the game (Assassin’s Creed II). Other times it’s excruciatingly boring busy work through menus (Assassin’s Creed III). The hard part is finding the balance between making players work for the money in meaningful ways, not making it too much of a grind and making the system endure for the entire game.

We’ll see if Ubisoft Montreal and the seven other studios working on the game (They’ve been on the job since the summer of 2011.) can pull it off when Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag ships on Oct. 29 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U and PC.